William Cameron Menzies

Things to Come

Things to Come

A landmark collaboration between writer H. G. Wells, producer Alexander Korda, and designer and director William Cameron Menzies, Things to Come is a science fiction film like no other, a prescient political work that predicts a century of turmoil and progress. Skipping through time, Things to Come bears witness to world war, disease, dictatorship, and, finally, utopia. Conceived, written, and overseen by Wells himself as an adaptation of his own work, this megabudget production, the most ambitious ever from Korda’s London Films, is a triumph of imagination and technical audacity.

Film Info

  • United Kingdom
  • 1936
  • 97 minutes
  • Black & White
  • 1.37:1
  • English
  • Spine #660

Special Features

  • New, restored high-definition digital film transfer, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack on the Blu-ray edition
  • Audio commentary featuring film historian and writer David Kalat
  • New interview with writer and cultural historian Christopher Frayling on the film’s design
  • New visual essay by film historian Bruce Eder on Arthur Bliss’s musical score
  • Unused special effects footage by artist László Moholy-Nagy, along with a video installation piece by Jan Tichy incorporating that footage
  • Audio recording from 1936 of a reading from H. G. Wells’s writing about the Wandering Sickness, the plague in Things to Come
  • English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
  • PLUS: A new essay by critic Geoffrey O’Brien

    New cover by Laurent Durieux

Purchase Options

Special Features

  • New, restored high-definition digital film transfer, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack on the Blu-ray edition
  • Audio commentary featuring film historian and writer David Kalat
  • New interview with writer and cultural historian Christopher Frayling on the film’s design
  • New visual essay by film historian Bruce Eder on Arthur Bliss’s musical score
  • Unused special effects footage by artist László Moholy-Nagy, along with a video installation piece by Jan Tichy incorporating that footage
  • Audio recording from 1936 of a reading from H. G. Wells’s writing about the Wandering Sickness, the plague in Things to Come
  • English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
  • PLUS: A new essay by critic Geoffrey O’Brien

    New cover by Laurent Durieux
Things to Come
Cast
Raymond Massey
John Cabal/Oswald Cabal
Edward Chapman
Pippa Passworthy/Raymond Passworthy
Ralph Richardson
The Boss
Margaretta Scott
Roxana/Rowena
Cedrick Hardwicke
Theotocopulos
Maurice Braddell
Dr. Harding
Sophie Stewart
Mrs. Cabal
Derrick de Marney
Richard Gordon
Ann Todd
Mary Gordon
Pearl Argyle
Catherine Cabal
Kenneth Villiers
Maurice Passworthy
Ivan Brandt
Morden Mitani
Anne McLaren
The Child
Patricia Hilliard
Janet Gordon
Charles Carson
Great-grandfather
Credits
Produced by
Alexander Korda
Director
William Cameron Menzies
Settings designed by
Vincent Korda
Photography
Georges Périnal
Special effects directed by
Ned Mann
Music specially composed by
Arthur Bliss
Musical director
Muir Matheson
Costumes designed by
John Armstrong
Costumes designed by
René Hubert
Costumes designed by
Marchioness of Queensberry
Production manager
David B. Cunynghame
Recording director
A. W. Watkins
Assistant art director
Frank Wells
Aeronautical adviser
Nigel Tangye
Supervising editor
William Hornbeck
Film editors
Charles Crichton
Film editors
Francis Lyon
Special effects photographed by
Edward Cohen
Assistant special effects
Lawrence Butler
Assistant director
Geoffrey Boothby
Camera operator
Robert Krasker

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